Jeff Bezos, the second richest man in the world, successfully blasted off a 320-foot-tall rocket ship made by his Blue Origin company from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in the early hours of the morning. It made the company the first to successfully reach orbit on its first launch of an orbital-class rocket.

The uncrewed New Glenn rocket took off at 2:03 a.m. EST from Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Blue Origin said.

Blue Origin's New Glenn finally roared into orbit in the early hours of Thursday, with SpaceX's Starship rocket set to launch hours later.

Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, often rivals in both business and space exploration, appear to have reconciled. The world's two richest men publicly exchanged congratulatory messages this week,

Hours after Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin nailed its first-ever orbital mission, SpaceX seized back the spotlight on Thursday as its latest test of Starship, its gargantuan next-generation megarocket, ended with the upper stage dramatically disintegrating over the Atlantic.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk took to X on Thursday night to explain what his company believes may have caused part of the Starship rocket to experience a "rapid unscheduled disassembly."

The guest list includes some of America’s most influential tech billionaires and politicians as well as some foreign leaders and celebrities who have embraced Trump.

SpaceX CEO Musk has described the explosion of the company's Starship spacecraft during its seventh flight test Thursday as "barely a bump in the road," underlining the momentum behind the commercial space giant.

This weekly newsletter on rockets provides definitive coverage of the global launch industry. The big news this week is the New Glenn and Starship missions.

Founded 25 years ago by Bezos, Blue Origin has been launching paying passengers to the edge of space since 2021, including himself. The short hops from Texas use smaller rockets named after the first American in space, Alan Shepard. New Glenn, which honors John Glenn, is five times taller.